South Carolina was outraged over British tax policies in the 1760s that violated what they saw as their constitutional right to "no taxation without representation". Merchants joined the boycott against buying British products. When the London government harshly punished Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party, South Carolina's leaders joined eleven other colonies (except Georgia) in forming the Continental Congress. When the British attacked Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775 and were beaten back by the Massachusetts Patriots, South Carolina Patriots rallied to support the American Revolution. Loyalists and Patriots of the colony were split by nearly 50/50.
Many of the South Carolinian battles fought during the American Revolution were with loyalist Carolinians and the part of the Cherokee tribe that allied with the British. This was to General Henry Clinton's advantage. His strategy was to march his troops north from St. Augustine, Florida, and sandwich George Washington in the North. Clinton alienated Loyalists and enraged Patriots by attacking a fleeing army of Patriot soldiers who posed no threat. Enslaved Africans and African Americans chose independence by escaping to British lines where they were promised freedom.Ramsay's History of South Carolina two volumes later published in one volume. Newberry, S.C., W. J. Duffie, 1858. p. 272 states that 25,000 slaves escaped joining the British Army during the Revolutionary War. Colonel Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee placed the number of slaves who went to the British side at more than 20,000 in his Memoirs of the Revolutionary War in the Southern Department, Volume II, p. 456. These numbers have been estimated to be between 20 and 25 percent of the slave population of the state at the time. William Jay in Miscellaneous writings on slavery, Volume 3, 1853, p. 460 gives the slave population of South Carolina in 1790 as 107,00 to show the magnitude of the number of slaves who fled to the British side in the Revolutionary War. Digital History Explorations Revolutionary War places the percentage of escaped slaves in South Carolina during the Revolutionary War at about 25 percent.
Combined Continental Army and state militia forces under the command of Major General Nathanael Greene regained control of much of South Carolina by capturing the numerous interdependent chain of British-held forts throughout the State. One by one, the British and Loyalists were surrounded in the capital of Charles Town and became completely dependent on supplies by sea. After preliminary peace terms had been agreed, the British evacuated Charles Town on December 14, 1782, a day now officially designated as "South Carolina Independence Day". Greene was awarded a Congressional Medal and numerous other official awards from the State of South Carolina for his leadership in liberating the state and for restoring an elected government. In 1787, South Carolina representatives John Rutledge, Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and Pierce Butler went to Philadelphia where the Constitutional Convention was being held and constructed what served as a detailed outline for the U.S. Constitution.
Pre-war causes
After Parliament began taxing the North American colonies to raise revenue to make up for the costs of the French and Indian War and Pontiac's War, to protest the Stamp Act, South Carolina sent wealthy rice planter Thomas Lynch, 26-year-old lawyer John Rutledge, and Christopher Gadsden to the Stamp Act Congress. Gadsden, leader of the pro-Independence "Liberty Boys," is often grouped with James Otis and Patrick Henry as the prime agitators for American independence by historians.
In 1767, the Townsend Acts levied new taxes on glass, oil, wine, tea, paper, and other goods. Gadsden led the opposition and although Britain removed the taxes on everything except tea, Charlestonians mirrored the Boston Tea Party by dumping a shipment of tea into the Cooper River. Other shipments were allowed to land, but they rotted in Charles Town storehouses.
Delegates from twelve colonies, all of the Thirteen Colonies except for Georgia, came together for the First Continental Congress in 1774. Five South Carolinians, including those who represented the colony in the Stamp Act Congress, headed for Philadelphia. Henry Middleton served as president for part of Congress. The following January the South Carolina colonial assembly was disbanded by Royal Governor Lord William Campbell, and it was reformed as an extralegal Provincial Congress. This South Carolina Provincial Congress had further meetings until March 1776, and thus South Carolinians had created a temporary government. This ruled until the colony had settled things with Britain. In March 1776 South Carolina adopted its first constitution, John Rutledge was voted "president" of the state, and the legislature was called the "General Assembly of South Carolina". The term "Republic" or "Republic of South Carolina" was never used.
Most Loyalists came from the Upcountry (known as the Upstate, since the 1960s), which thought that domination by the rich, elitist Charles Town planter class in an unsupervised government was worse than remaining under the rule of the British Crown. Judge William Henry Drayton and Reverend William Tennent were sent to the Back Country to gain support for the "American Cause" and Lowcountry's General Committee and Provincial Congress but did not have much success. In September 1775, the Royal Governor dissolved the last-ever Royal Assembly in South Carolina and left for the safety of the British warship Tamar in the Charleston Harbor.
Early conflicts
Throughout the course of the American Revolutionary War, over 200 battles were fought within South Carolina, more than in any other state. On November 19, 1775, Patriot forces of the Long Cane Militia fought Loyalists in the first battle of Ninety Six, resulting in the death of James Birmingham, the first South Carolinian and southerner of the war. Colonel Richard Richardson led a large party of Whigs into the Upcountry to arrest Loyalists and to assert the power of the revolutionary General Committee over the entire colony.
Britain's strategy was to take advantage of the Loyalist support in the South, begin a military drive in Charles Town, and perhaps sweep through the Upcountry, North Carolina, and Virginia while gathering men to take on Washington in the North. Under Colonel William Moultrie, the South Carolinians defeated the Royal Navy in the Battle of Sullivan's Island on June 28, 1776, and brought the Patriot Continental Army a major victory. In Philadelphia, the news reached delegates of the Second Continental Congress on July 19, over two weeks after delegates had voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence. The Battle of Sullivan's Island also caused the British to rethink their strategy and leave the South for approximately three years.
The new state legislature met the next December to complete the state constitution made the previous October, de-establishing the Anglican Church. In the Upcountry, the British had convinced the Cherokee to fight on their side. Although the British officer in charge of the operation had told the Cherokee to attack only Patriot soldiers in organized groups, soon murder and cabin burnings were widespread on the frontier. The Whigs' Andrew Williamson, Andrew Pickens, and James Williams, who had been battling Loyalists in the Upcountry, launched a successful campaign against the Cherokee. In 1777 they ceded their remaining lands to the South Carolina government. On February 5, 1778, South Carolina became the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States. In 1780, the British returned to South Carolina.
Siege of Charleston
In 1780, the British, stalemated in the north and facing pressure from home to end the war, embarked on a plan of action that would come to be known to historians as "The Southern Strategy." They planned to trap George Washington's troops by pushing their troops up from the South while Washington defended himself in the North. The British landed a major expeditionary force south of Charleston, landing on John's Island, moving to James Island, and then besieging Charles Town. General Benjamin Lincoln defended the city during a two-month siege but was forced to surrender almost all the Continental forces in the Carolinas to General Clinton. Henry Middleton, once president of the Continental Congress, was forced to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown as a prisoner.
General Washington begged Governor John Rutledge and the rest of the state's council to leave Charles Town while there was still time, and they did. Rutledge traveled around the state, printing proclamations and other state papers on a printing press he had with him, and sending numerous letters demanding that the Continental Congress send the Continental Army to relieve South Carolina.
The British quickly established control over the coast, making posts at the other port cities of Beaufort and Georgetown. It was during this time that many enslaved African Americans managed to escape to their lines. The African Americans wanted freedom, and the British promised them that. Approximately 25,000 African Americans, one-quarter of the enslaved population, escaped to the British during the war to achieve freedom.Digital History
The British followed their coastal occupation by establishing posts upcountry where they could establish control by coordinating with local Tories.
Responding to Rutledge's pleas and the British threat to the whole southern flank, Washington sent an army of Continentals under General Gates, but was defeated at Camden on August 16, 1780, and the remnant of the army retreated northward in record time.
Just before the battle of Camden, Gates met with Francis Marion, a militia officer who had escaped parole at the defeat of Charleston because of an accidental injury, which caused him to be out of town at the surrender. Marion had a small group of rag-tag militia men with him, whose appearance evoked derision from the Continentals. Gates saw Marion as an embarrassment and got rid of him by giving him orders to scout the British and destroy boats, bridges, and other items that might be useful to the British.
Marion left, obeying his orders, and missed the battle. The following day, by order of Governor Rutledge, and by invitation of the troops, he accepted command of the Williamsburg militia at the confluence of Lynches River and the Pee Dee River. This band joined with a few other militiamen from around the state became known as Marion's Brigade (Marion was eventually commissioned general). Marion had not yet heard the news of Gates' defeat at the time. The next day a small militia under Thomas Sumter was surprised and completely routed at Fishing Creek; Sumter barely escaped with his life. At this point, Marion had the only viable Patriot army left in the South. From that time until the arrival of General Nathanael Greene, the war's outcome in the south depended entirely on the militia, and the militia gradually turned the tide.
The war was not only a clash of arms but a battle for the sympathy of the population. After leaving Gates, Marion began a new and unheard of policy, as he destroyed boats the British might use, and commandeered food, horses and other property from the settlers. He had his troops issue receipts for each item to the owners. His gentlemanly actions quickly made Marion a hero and garnered support for his brigade. Many of these receipts were redeemed after the war, with the new state government usually paying in full.
General Clinton's mistakes